Category Archives: gun

Make Them Look At Human Gun Carnage

Posted on by
Reply

Make the NRA and their GOP sycophants look at the torn and shredded remains of those American children and adults slaughtered by firearms. Number one reason children die in this country? Someone shoots them.

I survived an act of gun violence in 1984 when I was held up and shot in the head at point blank range. The bullet remains lodged in the brain. Members of our American family – including our children – are being shot down every day. It is time to make those preventing a safer country to get a close up look at reality.

The author, weeks after the shooting, September, 1984.

Make these accessories to murder look at the pictures, up close. Film, photograph, and record their reactions to seeing these pictures.   

Put them in a crime scene and say look at this torn up child. Still don’t like background checks? Keep looking. Still don’t want to ban assault weapons? Say that out loud, for the camera that’s trained on you while you’re looking at this horror.  

Then, with the pictures of human carnage present, have them publically explain why this carnage is the price members of our American family must pay for our freedom. 

The greed-driven thugs who oppose universal background checks, red flag laws, and a ban on assault weapons, are directly or indirectly, accessories to murder and attempted murder. 

James Brady and author, circa 1990
James Brady and author, circa 1990

If anyone thinks, even for a moment, that labelling these folks accessories to murder is a stretch, it’s not. Not even a little. 

The Cornell Law School’s online Legal Information Institute says an accessory before-the-fact (the crime), 

 ”is a person who aids, abets, or encourages another to commit a crime but who is not present at the scene. An accessory before the fact, like an accomplice may be held criminally liable to the same extent as the principal. Many jurisdictions refer to an accessory before the fact as an accomplice.

See  Evans v. State, 145 So. 3d 674 (Miss. 2014); accessory”

Now, the NRA leadership and its GOP sycophants know  – they know – children and adults in our American family will get shot and killed because of them. They know thousands upon thousands will get shot and survive. Peoples lives blown to pieces because these are greed-driven thugs who want money. Profit before people. Let the people die.

Nothing that I propose here should happen without the permission of the survivors of gun violence, their families, and the families of those who did not survive the act of gun violence. 

Sanity First: Yes to responsible gun control

Posted on by
2

Fanatics must refrain from engaging in a relationship with objective reality in order to hold onto their beliefs. That said, anyone who does not think changes in gun regulations are part of what must happen in order to address my country’s addiction to and obsession with violence is a fanatic, utterly delusional, breathtakingly gullible, or an out and out liar.

Since the Newtown shootings I’ve seen far too many look to protect what they think is their right to own any firearm under the sun first, and, as a result, place the safety of their fellow human beings second, if at all.

The gun show loophole is essentially this. There are about 5,000 gun shows a year in this country. In 33 states people can go in and buy weapons without background checks, a fact which everyone knows (except the aforementioned fanatics’n friends) provides a feeding trough for criminals to get weapons. You can’t say you are against closing this loophole and say you want to reduce violence in the same sentence and be telling the truth.

The facts are clear. There are something like 600 deaths every month in this country from guns, more than 30,000 a year. Every reputable study documents (documents!) that the more guns there are the more death and injury by guns there are.

Not long after the Newtown shootings some argued knives are more dangerous than guns. Wrong. But here’s what I’ll say. If people start committing mass murder by knife, then I’m all for talking about responsible knife control. But that is not what’s happening. People are choosing guns to kill.

And then, of course, there was this bit of asinine foolishness from, not surprisingly, fools. I can think of no better representative for this group than Glenn Beck who pounced on those calling the Bushmaster AR-15 an assault rifle (by definition it’s not).  The AR-15 is one of the weapons Adam Lanza used to kill the 20 children and six adults. beck said, “Make a promise to yourself that you will stop calling rifles ‘assault weapons.’” This sick twisted twit is getting all ants-in-the-pants because someone didn’t use precisely the right terms to describe the semi-automatic weapon that, according to Bushmaster is used by more than 100 police departments and the military in 50 nations? Like I said, guns before people in the minds of some, like Beck.

Universal background checks, a ban an assault weapons and semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15, lower capacity magazines, will help save lives. President Obama and others have set the right tone.

Lastly (for now), it is utterly mind-blowing that the president had to lift a ban on federal research into gun violence. The ban itself is beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence that many are invested in maintaining the violence because it means more gun sales and for these creatures, it is profit before people.

As for those who think they need to stockpile weapons because some day the government is going to attack them, all I can say is this, move to another country, though God knows who would be willing to accept you.